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Don DeLillo’s White Noise

White Noise is the eighth novel by American writer Don DeLillo that was published in 1985. This book won the National Book Award for Fiction.

White Noise is an example of postmodern literature. It is believed that this book was DeLillo’s breakthrough and led him to a wider number of readers. This book is included in the list of the 100 best English novels from 1923 to 2005, according to the magazine Time. Initially, DeLillo wanted to name his book Panasonic, but Panasonic was against it.

For the main character of the novel White Noise, the fear of death turned into a real obsession. He constantly thinks about the brevity of his earthly existence, and with painful pleasure absorbs the details of the bloody catastrophes, about which modern media happily talks about. Isn’t it why Jack Gladney’s profession is studies about Hitler, a scientific study of the radical experience of mankind in the development practices of dying? It is generally believed that a happy family life and children are a guarantee to be stay in the memory and history of the world. Jack has a lovely wife Babette, and a lot of children from different marriages. But still it doesn’t kill the sense of constant anxiety. In order to get rid of this anxiety Jack is ready for to do many things – from the in-depth study of the Tibetan Book of the Dead to an assassination attempt.

What can Jack hope for, if our whole universe is waiting for the death? The term white noise refers to one of the manifestations of entropy, which is well-known to owners of radios.

It would seem that it is worth hoping in order to preserve the achievements of human civilization. But Don DeLillo, who described the life of the American heartland in this novel, doesn’t refer to achievements at all.

One of the characters in the novel, a college professor Murray Siskind believes that supermarket contributes to the spiritual cleansing of people, and the purchase of goods, paradoxically, is comparable with the preparation for death.

The eschatological motifs are typical for the majority of works of the writer; they are especially noticeable in White Noise. The fear of death of the protagonist reaches its climax when the evacuation is declared in connection with the release of toxic chemicals at the local factory.

The role of the mass media and television in the lives of the heroes in the novel cannot be overemphasized. TV in Gladney’s house operates around the clock, creating a background sound, or white noise, which is so fond by Jack’s wife, Babette. Family members say the reality is not their surroundings, but TV shows and newscasts.

White Noise is the eighth novel by American writer Don DeLillo that was published in 1985. This book won the National Book Award for Fiction.

White Noise is an example of postmodern literature. It is believed that this book was DeLillo’s breakthrough and led him to a wider number of readers.